A Pint For Kim
We are the friends and family of Kimberley Benedyk Sandford of Naperville, Illinois who, after an inspiring eight year journey with a rare cancer, left us in March 2020. We now organize blood drives year-round in her memory, including our big annual record-setting Mother’s Day Weekend drive and life-saving festival. We are not a charity as we do not try to raise money. We only try to raise awareness that the largest use of donated blood goes to cancer patients and to inspire blood donations in Kim’s memory! None of this would be possible without the generosity of hundreds of volunteers including our amazing team who donates their time and efforts to make each event a success, as well as our generous annual Mother’s Day weekend event sponsors.
Once again we will gather on Mother’s Day Weekend to continue to save lives in Kim’s memory! And to try to break the state record for one-day one-location blood drive for the 5th year in a row!
Our 5th annual event will be held on Saturday, May 11 at Naperville North High School. The first appointment is 8:00 a.m. and the last one is 3:00 p.m. with walk-ins welcome until 2:00 p.m.
The event page will be up soon, but for now you can grab one of the over 1,100 appointment spots by CLICKING HERE. And you can CLICK HERE TO VOLUNTEER!
Don’t forget about our team challenge! If you get a group together, all you have to do is decide on a team name and make sure everyone puts that team name in the NOTES section when they sign up for an appointment. The winning team gets a pizza party provided by Little Pops Pizzeria!
While we work on getting all the information together for this year’s event, you can check out last year’s event page as we will once again have live music, food trucks, carnival games, “Naperville celebrities” dunk tank, hyper-cars, a “thank you drawing” with tens of thousands of dollars in donated prizes for our blood donors and volunteers to win, the US Marine Corps, and so much more!
We can’t wait to see you and your friends and family this Mother’s Day Weekend for another amazing life-saving festival that is completely free and open to everyone!
To see the hundreds of beautiful photos taken and generously provided by James Martin of The Base Chicago, visit our gallery!
Though our annual Mother’s Day Weekend Blood Drive & Celebration of Life is our largest event, we also hold smaller drives throughout the year including one in memory of Kim’s birthday, a fun Halloween themed one that includes a pizza party, a Thanksgiving weekend one that is also a toy and coat drive, a December one that is also a food drive, and more!
9/17 KIM’S SISTER’S BIRTHDAY WISH – 95th Street Library
10/3 KIM’S BIRTHDAY MEMORIAL DRIVE – 95th Street Library
10/26 HALLOWEEN WEEKEND DRIVE – Kim’s Sister’s House (Mobile)
12/1 DAY OF GIVING DRIVE – Naperville Community Center
Kim’s heroic eight-year experience with cancer began in 2012 when she was diagnosed with a 1-in-a-million stage IV cancer. Though the initial prognosis was scary, Kim battled with fierce determination, strength, and grace. We consider the eight years we had with Kim after that diagnosis to be a gift, one that she gave us by fighting so hard. You can read more about her story and about the moment the A Pint For Kim movement began when we were made aware that the largest use of donated blood is for cancer patients while they undergo treatments.
Kim’s youngest sister, Kristyn, recently wrote a personal essay that was published by The Huffington Post sharing intimate details about how the “A Pint For Kim” movement was born, including how it was actually Kim’s idea!
The essay reached millions of readers resulting in Kim’s family receiving emails from people all over the world sharing their own personal stories of grief and loss as well as joyfully sharing that they donated in Kim’s memory. These messages came from numerous states and countries, officially making the “A Pint For Kim” movement an international one.
To read about how the very first blood drive was launched and to discover why this movement is so important to Kim’s family, you can read the essay here.
"I would like my life to be a statement of love and compassion, and where it isn't, that's where my work lies." -Ram Dass
Thank You For Helping Carry On Kim’s Mission
